Celebrating Independent Authors
Ripped from the headlines…
“Alien monster eats Prime Minister’s Brain!”
“Woman Gives Birth to Rottweiler Quintuplets!”
“Nostradamus Predicts End of the World is Near!”
I’m the first one to admit that novel ideas can come from anywhere: dreams, conversations, a song—you name it—it’s all fodder for the creative muse. As an unapologetic news junkie, I tend to look at the headlines first. My imagination takes off from there. Continue reading “Using the News to Spark the Muse”
What happens when you write a book and either people like the characters so much they ask you to continue writing about them, or the story’s too big for just one book and it turns into more than one? Well that, my friend, is what’s called a series.
Writing a series is a good way for a writer to establish him or herself in the heart and mind of a reader. If readers like the first book, then they’re more apt to purchase the second and so on. Plus, the writer begins to know and understand the main character (or characters) and is able to delve further into what makes them tick, bringing a depth to them that wouldn’t be possible in the length of one book.
Which brings us to the concept of character arc. In fiction, readers expect the character to change in some way by the end of the book. Change in protagonist = character arc. For example, if the protagonist starts out shy and insecure, then by the end of the story they should have at least given that character more confidence. But how do you handle character arc across an entire series?
That’s a bit tricky. Continue reading “Character Arcs — Or, Where Were You Going With That Series?”
The other day my partner Mark and I put down the flooring in a spiffy new building project in our back yard: an ‘Accessory Dwelling Unit’, or ADU as the city likes to call it. It’s actually a mother-in-law apartment for my parents to use when they decide they can’t hack the Arizona heat and yearn for some fresh, cool, northwest air. This tends to be every year about the time the temps in Phoenix scream into the triple digits. Go figure.
How does that relate to writing, you ask? Continue reading “How a Novel is Like Flooring”
“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” — Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams’ quote regarding deadlines is one of my favorites—not because I love deadlines—oh, no certainly not—but because he was making fun of the idea that a writer is actually expected to adhere to one.
Now yeah, I’m an indie writer, so technically my deadlines for getting a book up are self-imposed and artificial. Yet, I still make them, still push myself to finish the book, the blurb, the cover, what have you. Deadlines can be both carrot and stick. Carrot, because once I’ve finished the book and cobbled together all the necessary components (book cover, editing, marketing, etc.)Yay! I’ll have another book out there for folks to read! Stick because if a book takes longer than I anticipated and I know I’m going to miss a deadline, my stress level rises and I tend to beat myself up. Continue reading “Deadlines”